With the screams echoing in her ear and her heart thundering in her chest, Taylor rushed towards the sound of fighting with all her might. On her way, she saw guards, Seraph and other assorted soldiers, and even a few civilians rushing about, mostly towards the same way she was also going. Though it was a little apprehensive that, despite the village being attacked, there was a suspicious lack of reinforcement coming in from Divinity's Reach.
If she hadn't lived through five years in the city, she would have accused the current rulers of not caring about the populace, but the last time there was even a rumor about a group Ettin moving into the mountains around Queensdale they immediately mobilized all available manpower to drive them out. That, and other events during the years made it clear that while those of the noble class liked their luxuries and comforts, they took their duty of protection of the people of Divinity's Reach seriously (at least most of them).
To Taylor, that told one thing: there was more going on than she could see.
Arriving at a bigger junction, amidst ruins and flames, she had to stop her wondering, because she came face to face with a real live centaur as it was slowly, and with a cruel smile, menacing an older woman as she tried to scoot back, terrified, on the ground.
On reflex, Taylor raised her arm holding her staff and unleashed a compact but powerful fireball at the centaur's head. Who, with surprising reflexes, raised his shield in an instant and blocked the fireball, which exploded impotently against the unusually sturdy shield. The only thing it achieved was causing the old woman to scream out in fear.
Taylor looked down at her staff and shook her head while grumbling.
'Those damn fantasy novels lied to me! It seems fireball isn't the answer to all of life's problems.'
Her musings were cut short by the centaur lowering the shield, letting loose a burst of cruel laughter. Ignoring the terrified woman, he lowered his spear and began charging towards Taylor, eyes shining with bloodlust.
Taylor spent the last years going around practicing magic almost every day but rarely had she had to use it in battles. Sure, sometimes she killed the odd giant spider or a particularly sneaky bear, and she had a grand ol' time at the yearly skritt raid, but the sheer bloodlust emanating from the centaur paralyzed her.
She could see her death in the eyes of the rapidly approaching being; she could hear her heartbeat to the same rhythm as the centaur's hoofs on the ground, yet she couldn't convince her brain to move any part of her body.
Then another scream tore through the air, and the spell was broken. She could move again, and without thinking about it, she fired off a vertical Vaporblade spell, which to the surprise of the centaur easily bisected it.
Taylor watched as the life drained out of the eyes of the centaur, and she could feel the bile rising up at the thought that she took another sentient being's life.
She could feel her breath coming short, and her heart continued to hammer away, trying to break out of her ribcage, when she was once again broken out of her panicky ruminations. This time however was an arrow whistling dangerously close to her face.
Snapping up her face, it took her only a second to find the source of the projectile: a trio of centaurs, one with sword and shield, one with a spear, and another, hanging back, with a bow. All of them charging at her, murder in their eyes.
She looked down at the dead centaur and then back up at the charging ones, and made a decision: fight now and freak out later. If she survived this, she would have all the time to vomit and cry.
Steeling her heart, she took up a well-practiced and solid stance and raised her staff. The charging trio was met with a hail of Vaporblades that cleanly diced them up. Taylor immediately turned her gaze away, lest she lost her lunch. She was about to look for the old woman that was menaced by the late centaur when a voice called out behind her.
"Hey, you!"
She whirled around, automatically going through the motion on casting magic, and it took her several long seconds to realize she was called out in a human language, without aggression. The man who was approaching her was wearing the armor of the Seraph, but had a rather boyish face, with short, cropped red hair. He also looked harried, and his armor and clothing were covered ashes and who knows what else.
With a flex of will, she stopped the magic leaving her staff, its head glowing the familiar blue that heralded the casting of a Vaporblade. Momentarily closing her eyes, she slowly forced the accumulated magic from the staff's head to disperse harmlessly into the air. By the time she was finished and opened her eyes, the man already was already standing before her, eyes looking everywhere, watching for any chance of ambush.
"Good job out there, girl. Name's Corporal Beirne."
Taylor just nodded in answer, not trusting herself to answer without covering the already dirty armor of the Corporal in front of her with vomit.
The man either understood what was going through her mind or was simply so distracted that he just simply continued to speak.
"We've finished up here, so if you want to help look for survivors you need to head to the south part of the village."
Taylor once again nodded, and took a deep breath, swallowed the bile in her mouth, and forced herself to speak.
"Corporal, what happened?"
A sour expression appeared on the face of the man before her.
"Centaur attack as you saw. Main attack is up north at Lake Doric. These are just the stragglers. Or distraction, I don't know."
Suddenly raising his head, looking in the distance seeing something that Taylor couldn't discern, he turned around and began running away, leaving a dumbfounded Taylor standing over the corpses of several centaurs.
Before he vanished behind the corner of a slightly burning house, he slowed down a little and yelled one last thing.
"Send everyone to the inn! Sergeant Walters set up an HQ there!" And then he vanished, leaving Taylor alone and confused. Shaking her head, she looked around while gripping her staff so much that her knuckles turned white.
So much destruction and death, and for what?
She made sure to read up on the history of the world she found herself in and naturally came across the conflict with the centaurs. Sadly, there was precious little in the books she had access to about the reason for the conflict.
Maybe later…
For now, she had to make sure no one else died in the village. She took a deep breath employing Ether Renewal to restore what magic she used, checked up on her gear, made sure her Arcane shield was in working condition, then took off towards where she could still hear the sounds of the battle.
The next hour was pure confusion, chaos, and more death than she was prepared to deal with. Taylor went from house to house, checking for survivors, or bodies (and lambasting herself for not figuring out how to search for people with magic).
The entire village was alight with flames, and she could barely hear her heart hammering in her chest over the sound of screams, cries, yells and explosions, yet paradoxically everything was silent as a grave occasionally broken by a small crackle of flame or a choked sob from someone.
She stepped around an overturned wagon, only to stop when she saw what was on the other side. The horse still connected to the wagon, its head at an unnatural angle, next to it several human bodies caked in dirt and blood, their eyes empty. Once again, barely stopping herself from vomiting, and choking back her own sobbing, she continued her search.
As she went through the village, she came across several hiding people, mostly women and children, as the men had taken up arms to protect them. Unsurprisingly, most of the corpses were men. Every time she came across someone, she had to explain: that no, she wasn't a centaur in disguise, yes she was there to help and yes, they needed to leave the burning building.
It was exhausting and soul-crushing seeing all those desperate mothers, protecting their children, or even worse older siblings protecting their younger siblings, asking if she knew where their parents were.
Taylor just tried to smile, and tell them everything was going to be okay, and that they should head to the inn, where the Seraph and the soldiers would help them.
Of course, centaur attacks regularly interrupted her search and rescue work. Either from a distance, with arrows or thrown spears or they simply charged at her, waving their swords in the air and yelling incoherently in rage.
The first time, she still hesitated before firing off her spell, decapitating her attackers. By the fifth group, she simply checked if there was anyone that she had to watch out for, and when she saw nobody, she simply took them out. By the tenth, she barely reacted; the moment she saw the centaurs they were dead.
As she stood around in a small crossroad, absentmindedly putting out a fire that was trying to move from one half-burned house to one that miraculously hasn't received damage, she made a decision. Taylor hadn't met any other survivors in quite a while, so it was probably useless to look for more. Instead, she should look for where the fighting was happening and help out there.
Double checking that the flames were out, she took a moment to check her reserves. They were almost three-quarters full. Thanks to the fact that she hadn't run into any centaurs for a while, her magic started regenerating. Though, despite her ability to restore health and stamina magically, she still felt exhausted and wanted to do nothing more than to fall bonelessly into a bed (preferably her own, but at this point she would take a clean-ish haystack) and sleep for an eternity.
Still, Taylor knew the day was far from over, and if she wanted to be able to look into a mirror in the future, then instead of heading back to the city, she should head to the inn and link up with the Seraph gathered there. So, with a sharp movement, she whirled around and began heading to where she knew the village inn was.
Jogging there, she was met by the sudden absence of sounds that previously blanketed the area with their harsh noises and piercing screams. It seemed to her that the fight was ending. Hopefully.
When she knew she was near the inn, she slowed down and started moving more cautiously. She didn't know what would await her there. An inn besieged by enraged centaurs? Despair and grave silence?
Turning on the last corner, she came upon barricades made with all sorts of furniture, wagons, and parts of the ruins around the inn. But before she could really take everything in, she was met with a barrage of yells from the guards manning the impromptu defenses.
"Who are you?"
"Where did you come from?"
"Put your hands up!"
"Drop your staff!"
Taylor opened her mouth to answer, or just clarify who she was, but the barrage of orders and threats just kept coming, and as she looked in the eyes of the dirty and bone-tired soldiers, she realized they really weren't seeing her. Instead, she closed her mouth, diverted more power into her shield, and began to slowly walk towards the barricade as calmly as she could.
Thinking back on what the Corporal said, she realized these soldiers were probably as green as she was, only without the power to use magic. They were doubtlessly traumatized. While thinking about how she could take care of this issue, without triggering the obviously too wound up soldiers, a piercing whistle broke them out of their frenzy.
"Stand down, soldiers!"
The soldiers stopped as if someone slapped them and turned towards the owner of the voice. To Taylor's relief, it was Corporal Beirne, just even dirtier, and covered in more blood and missing a pauldron. He looked at her and nodded in respect.
"Happy to see you survived, Miss. Come in, I will take you to the Sergeant."
"Thank you," answered Taylor with a relieved smile.
Then the man began barking orders, and in short order there was a slight gap in the barricade where Taylor could slip inside.
Inside was something that a generous person would describe as controlled chaos. Guards and people from the village were sitting everywhere maintaining their equipment while she could see dozens of hastily put together beds, holding wounded people, while the entire inn, based on the sounds she could hear, was filled to the brim with people.
Not far from the main doors of the inn was a big oak table, probably dragged out from the inn. On it she could spy a map and around it stood several soldiers, who, based on the emblems on their armor, were leading the defenders. And, it seemed, the good Corporal was taking her exactly there.
Taking a deep breath, she followed the soldier leading her and tried to ignore the stares and whispers of the surrounding people. One of the people staring intently at the desk, and talking in a low voice, looked up and upon seeing Beirne, straightened up and turned towards them, allowing Taylor to see their face.
Surprisingly, it was a woman (the big stocky armors made identifying people's gender somewhat hard), probably in her thirties, with a severe expression. Her armor and face were surprisingly clean, though Taylor could see that there were several dents on the armor that were hastily repaired. She watched the local blacksmith in the Salma District enough in her free time to notice it.
"Corporal, this is her?"
"Yes, Ma'am." A crisp salute followed the answer.
"Good job. Go back to your position, I will take it from here." Her voice was deep, and Taylor could see the moment the praise left her lips, the Corporal stood straighter. It seemed her soldiers really respected her. Beirne saluted once more, and with military precision did an about-face and left Taylor standing there alone under the gaze of one severe-looking woman.
The Sergeant stepped forward and stopped two steps from her.
"Your name?"
It took Taylor a second to gather her wits to answer.
"Taylor, Sir. Er… Ma'am." In the end, she decided not to attempt a salute, as that would haven awkward.
"Good to meet you, Taylor. It seems the Gods have not abandoned us in our hour of need. I have heard how you helped the villagers. Thank you."
The woman gave her a small smile, and the whispers around them increased. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Even after years of living without the horrors of Winslow, everything that made Brockton Bay horrible, and living with Andrew and Petra, she still wasn't used to receiving praise.
Plus, the moment the Sergeant mentioned her helping the villagers, unbidden, the motionless faces of the dead people she found while searching came to the forefront of her mind. Thankfully, before she could spiral into self-loathing, Sergeant Walters continued to speak.
"It's good that you arrived now, because I just sent over my remaining man to the garrison, and I would like if you headed over there too. Captain Thackeray is defending the place and according to the runners, they need all the help they can get."
"But, I'm here to…"
She didn't let Taylor finish.
"There is no point staying here, Taylor. We took a census, and we found everybody we could. Those who are not here are either hiding in the woods or dead. You are much more useful at the garrison."
Taylor wanted to argue, wanted to say that she could help here, that she needed to help here, that she needed to make sure the people were alright, to prevent even more corpses with empty eyes showing up. But one look into the older woman's eyes, and she knew it was futile. Plus, she wasn't a child anymore. She should be able to put aside her feelings for a while and do what was needed of her.
And later, when everything was over, she could get Petra and some of her other friends and hold a long, alcohol-fueled complaining session about the unfairness of life.
She gave a slow and slightly unsure nod to the Sergeant, whose face gained a slightly relieved cadence. Taylor didn't know if it was because she didn't argue, or because she agreed to help.
"Good. Take a breather, then take the road that hugs the river. I don't know what you can expect. The last runner was a while ago, but we know the centaurs have some magical support. And may the Six be with you."
"Understood and thank you." Then, after a second of thought, continued. "And with you too."
The woman gave her a nod, then turned around, returning to the table covered with the map, clearly dismissing her. Taylor stood there for a few seconds, unsure what she should do, before an unremarkable soldier stepped up to her, a wet towel and a jug of water in their hands, offering to her.
"Miss, some refreshments."
"Thank you."
Taylor's reply may have been a tad more relieved than what she had intended, but upon the sight of the jug, she suddenly realized she was thirsty and hungry (but for that she had some high-calorie snacks in her bag) and absolutely and disgustingly filthy. She was caked in ash, dust, and who knows what else, sprinkled with some blood just for good measure.
Gratefully, she took the towel, washed her face and hand with a quick motion, then held out the previously white towel, now filthy black to the soldier, who looked at it as if it were a rabid skritt. Embarrassingly, she took her hand back, threw up the towel in the air, and with a quick burst of magic, burned it into nothingness. Ignoring the wide-eyed look of the soldier (and the other watcher's) she took the jug and began drinking in big, greedy glugs.
After finishing, she wiped her mouth then gave the empty jug back to the soldier, then had to almost slap herself. She had cleaning magic! Why wouldn't she use it?
Chastising herself for forgetting the most basic things, she snapped her finger and a gentle white light went over her entire body, removing the caked-on dirt and blood, leaving her tired but pristine. Though she hadn't yet figured out how to make her hair with magic, so it still looked horrible.
Ignoring the once again wide-eyed soldier, now firmly immersed in imaging what it would take to create a spell that styled hair on demand, she nodded to him absentmindedly in thanks, threw the jug at him, turned around, and began fishing out a snack from her bag (while also making a note to make it more organized).
Nibbling on a small portion of poultry jerky made by Andrew, she looked around for a spot where she could rest for a little. Upon inspection, she spotted a spot of grass off a building next to the inn that miraculously wasn't covered with resting soldiers, dying people, or any equipment and wasn't on fire, or ruined beyond recognition.
Praising the Gods (which she still found a little weird, but when in Rome…) she headed for it immediately with determined steps. Arriving at it, she made sure it was good enough, and upon confirmation, she plopped down with all the grace of an ornery dolyak.
After some minor contortions, she was soon in her preferred mediation pose and began using Ether Renewal to refresh herself and top up her tanks.
Attuned to air, the very air swirling around her, pushing, pulling her in her directions, she sped towards the garrison, running on the old, but well-maintained road next to the river, that was sadly reflecting the sky covered by the dark smoke rising from all over, obscuring its lovely sparkle that she had come to known over the years, spending lovely summer afternoons on its bank with Petra and her friends.
As Taylor run, she couldn't help but think about the situation.
The attack on Shaemoor made no sense. It was right outside of Divinity's Reach. The response would always be immediate and bloody. Plus, to her knowledge, there were no major centaurs holds anywhere near the village. So, by all accounts, the attack cost the centaurs much more than it ever would the humans.
Thinking about it a little more, while also ducking some arrows from a lone centaur archer, and returning fire with a nice crispy lightning bolt, she decided there was something else at play, and unfortunately, she didn't have enough information to figure it out.
So, she did the only thing she could: run even faster.
The air sizzled around her, and she felt so light she could have sworn she was gliding. For a moment, she was reminded of elves, and a famous book series, which in turn reminded her of her mother, and then her father.
Ignoring the sadness and guilt that came crashing down, she redoubled her effort to reach the garrison as fast as possible. Because if she was successful here, and earned some merit, then she could leverage that for more knowledge and became one step closer to returning home and to her father, not to mention the lives she could save.
Continuing with her frenzied run, she blasted a few more stragglers to smithereens, jumped over detritus and some corpses that littered the road, and after around ten minutes of constant running she arrived at a bend on the road that led to a bridge, which in turn led to the garrison situated on an island in the middle of the river.
Taylor skidded to a halt as soon as she saw the situation unfolding on the bridge. The gates were closed, no people were on the ramparts and a small group of soldiers was in front of the gate holding back a sizable force of centaurs. But she could see that they were faltering as they barely had any cover, which showed itself as an arrow fired by an archer centaur lodged itself into the throat of a careless guard.
She didn't have time to take everything in, because thanks to the air magic sizzling around her and her less than stealthy approach, the centaurs noticed her as soon as she came into view, and a small group detached from the assault to presumably take care of her.
Eyes darting around feverishly, she made a quick decision.
Taylor started running again, pumping more magic into the air around her and pooling a small amount in her body for what she had planned. If the centaurs were surprised that she was rushing at them, they didn't show it. Their faces were set in a rictus of rage and she would have sworn that their eyes shined somewhat red.
When she got close enough to go through with her plan, yet out of reach of their spears, she flexed her legs and jumped off the ground right over the spears that were about to skewer her, onto the head of the lead centaur. Not giving him a chance to react, she released the magic power pooled in her from her feet, releasing a blast of lightning that fried the head of the centaur and more importantly creating an enormous flash of light that caused everyone in the vicinity to cover their eyes and yell out in fright.
Using this brief distraction, she pushed off the body of the centaur that hadn't yet realized it was dead and, using air magic, boosted herself over the bridge, exactly over to the defending soldiers. With a flex of her will, she let go of the attunement to air and changed it to earth. Within the same breath, as she hung for a second, motionless over the crowd, she conjured a mass of earth, shaped into a wall, and let herself and her creation fall between the soldiers and the centaurs that were just blinking out her flashbang out of their eyes.
She landed with an almighty thud, her body rattled with the force of the earth wall impacting the ground, the guards around her exclaiming in fear, some of them even covering on the ground, expecting the worst.
It took a moment for the surrounding soldiers to realize they were actually not dead; finally looking up when a staccato of arrows struck her earthen wall and fell to the ground. Despite the wall, she remained crouched, as she had read enough war fiction to know you never risked looking out. A soldier wasn't as savvy as her and raised his head to take a quick look, and before Taylor or anyone else could warn him, he fell beck with an arrow sticking out of his face.
Taylor once again suppressed her instinctual reaction (though she sadly noted it became much weaker than the first time she saw the corpses back in the village) to check on the man, and to vomit. She just let out an almost inaudible sigh and turned towards the soldier with the corporal rank insignia that she had recognized from seeing it on Corporal Beirne.
"Corporal, situation?"
The man looked back at her, eyes almost unseeing. Taylor was about to snap at him when she heard the now-familiar sound of centaur charge. Growling in frustration, she cast a Churning Earth spell without looking, thankful that the bridge made aiming such spells a trifle. The spell itself was an upgraded version of the Unsteady Earth she had tried out so long ago at the, now her favorite, forest clearing. Once again, without looking, she cast another spell conjuring up giant spikes of hardened rock at the same place.
The sound coming from the other side of the wall, aside from the continued barrage of arrows, was the sound of centaurs crying out in pain as the previously stable and rather well-built bridge under them became unsteady in the extreme. Then, as they began to stumble, they were met with extremely hard earthen spikes to their faces. The sound of their faces meeting the spikes was rather sickening.
Hoping that would delay the next charge a little while, she turned to the dumbfounded and probably shellshocked corporal.
"Corporal! CORPORAL!"
After the second, much louder yell, the man seemingly snapped out of his shock and finally turned to her.
"Who are you? And how did you get here?"
Glad that the man finally snapped out of shock, Taylor introduced herself.
"Name's Taylor. Sergeant Walters sent me as reinforcement. Why is the gate closed?"
The man opened his mouth to presumably say something, and while he tried to string together an understandable sentence, she summoned countless dagger-shaped rocks and began firing blindly them in the direction she suspected the arrows were coming from.
The man, seeing this, closed and opened his mouth a few times, while the rest of the soldiers were cautiously watching through small cracks in the rock, or just sitting in one place trying to make sense of what was happening. Taylor suspected they were also participating in their first combat. The village of Shaemoor wasn't where the battle-hardened veterans were stationed, after all.
Finally, the man gathered his wits and spoke up.
"They managed to get in the garrison. Until we drive them out, the gate stays closed. Our task was to guard the flank. But…"
She turned towards the gates, which, compared to the Reach's gates, looked tiny and frowned in thought.
"I could blow it in."
"No, that would leave the flank unprotected." Hissed the man in anger, almost reaching for her hand, holding her staff as if to prevent her from casting.
"Right, no explosion. Then what? We just wait?"
An incoherent yell of rage downed the reply out from inside the garrison, and as one they all snapped their heads to look at the garrison, wishing they could see through stone. At the same moment, the arrow barrage intensified and the centaurs on the other side of the bridge also began yelling in rage.
Another soldier, who was spying through a conveniently placed crack on her earthen wall, began to mumble.
"They're all red…"
Taylor was about to ask who was red when a head appeared high above them on the ramparts. They looked down and began shouting.
"Sixty seconds! Prepare yourself!" And with that, they vanished once again.
She turned towards the corporal and was surprised to see he was sporting a rather relieved expression. Taylor reached out with her free hand while also somehow maintaining the concentration required to keep pelting the increasingly angry and frustrated centaurs on the other side of the bride with rock daggers, and grabbed the lapel of the corporal and yanked him towards her face.
"What is happening in sixty seconds?"
"They're opening the doors! They are opening the doors!" Came the answer from the suddenly terrified man. She let go of him, letting him fall back and staring at her, terrified, then nodded. That was indeed good news.
The moment that sentence left the ranking soldier's mouth, all the other, previously despondent soldiers perked up and began preparing to head to the doors. She took one look at them and knew they would be no help.
"Corporal, take your man and rush the gate as soon as it is open. I will cover the rear."
The man opened his mouth to say something, but she gave him the harshest glare she could, and his mouth snapped closed with an audible sound. He then nodded, and while still crouched, turned towards his man.
Starting a countdown around thirty seconds, Taylor turned back to her wall, raised its height a little and while also creating a small slit where she could look out and check the situation. The centaurs were indeed looking red, and not from anger, though they were certainly angry beyond belief, but from the visible glow that surrounded them.
They were also agitated, clawing at the ground with their hoofs, and she could see they were clenching their fists. After five years of living in Kryta, her first thought was when she saw them was that some kind of magic was affecting them. And seeing their behavior and the rictus of anger visible on their faces, she guessed it was some kind of frenzy or rage spell, cast on all the centaurs.
Despite her earth wall, the centaurs on the other end of the bridge still spotted the movement as the soldiers moved closer to the still closed doors, and with another incoherent yell, they immediately charged at the wall, overcoming their previous caution and distaste of being skewered by impossibly sharp rock daggers courtesy of Taylor.
"Ten seconds!"
Not even glancing at the man that yelled out the warning, Taylor once again cast the Churning Earth spell. Unfortunately, this time, thanks to the speed they were charging, a few got through without stumbling and falling on their faces. Taylor ignored those who fell, knowing she only had to delay for a few seconds more, and simply cast a line of rock spikes in front of the charging centaurs. The result only added to the already present viscera, blood and guts on the bridge.
She then continued to fire an increasing amount of rock daggers, as they were one of her fastest earth spells, and she didn't have the time to attune to a different element with faster and more damaging spells. While doing that, and keeping her eyes on the centaurs, she began to shuffle backward, hopefully towards the gate.
Taylor was about to check behind her when another yell made that unnecessary.
"We're clear! Get in, Miss!"
Hearing that, she stopped her barrage and instead summoned several extra thick and tall earth walls at the bridge's end, hoping to delay the centaurs even further, then spun around and with a quick step finally entered the garrison.
Ignoring the arrows impacting the thick wooden door, she looked around and took a look at the exhausted but elated soldiers who were, in turn, looking at her in awe. Deciding that she had done as much as she could, she continued her journey towards the courtyard, from where she still could hear the sound of fighting.
As she stepped out of the passageway that connected the north gate with the courtyard, she had to stop to take everything in. For an endless moment, her eyes darted around, seeing everything.
Taylor saw Seraph fighting on the battlements and ramparts with a small group of centaurs, while the courtyard itself was filled with ruined buildings, carriage wrecks, and other detritus, and, unfortunately, a tremendous amount of corpses, both centaur, and human.
And in the middle of the courtyard, surrounded by a circle of corpses, there was Captain Thackeray fighting in his lonesome, with three of the burliest and most wicked-looking centaurs. She watched as he danced around the centaur's swipes, striking back when possible. Just as they were back at the bridge, these centaurs also had a red sheen of light surrounding their bodies.
Knowing that she needed to act fast, she did the first thing that came to her mind.
"Duck!"
Thankfully, Thackeray was an excellent fighter and immediately followed Taylor's exclamation. It was a good thing he did, because where his head was a second ago flew through an overcharged and thus oversized Vaporblade spell. Unfortunately, it only caught one of the centaurs trying to skewer the captain, but Thakerey proving he didn't get his captaincy from the market on the cheap, capitalized on the situation and used his crouching position to spring up and skewer one of the surprised centaurs, then pivoting from the stab, he struck down the last centaur.
With that done, Taylor promptly went and joined the Captain in the middle of the courtyard, carefully stepping over the puddles of blood. Thackeray also turned around, and his tired face lit up with a small smile.
"Taylor! By the Gods, aren't you a sight for sore eyes!"
Blushing a little, she opened her mouth to answer, but she felt an enormous wave of magic pass through the garrison, invisible to the eyes. Her magical senses, however, were practically screaming at her that something important just happened.
Before she could even try to figure out what happened, the glow of the red sheen on the centaurs intensified, covering their eyes. As one, they all roared and began running towards her and Thackeray.
"Men!" While yelling, Thackery glanced at her and smirked a little. "And women! Prepare for a battle! A sage is here!"
Taylor let out an involuntary giggle, but before she could ask who or what a sage was they were beset by the remaining centaurs in the garrison, some even jumping off the ramparts to get to the two of them, joined by a fresh group arriving from the south bridge.
The Captain stepped forward, picking up a shield from the ground and raising his sword, ready to receive the charging enemies. Taylor, following his example, also stepped forward, so he could cover her, and began summoning ice shards, which immediately began orbiting around the two of them, like an intricate, beautiful but deadly flower, while also cursing herself for attuning to water.
They made quick work of the centaurs that were still in the courtyard when the new magic swept through them, as they were exhausted and wounded from their fights with the other Seraph and soldiers. With Thackeray in the front, tanking the centaurs and yelling out targets and Taylor sniping the called out targets while also harassing and killing those she could, they made a very efficient team.
This way, slowly but surely, they managed to push the incoming horde to the south gate, where they were joined by those soldiers who still had the power and strength to act.
Taylor was starting to feel the effect of the day on her body, and she could see several soldiers were the same. However, when she began feeling herself slowing down because of exhaustion, a white light enveloped Thackeray and spread to all humans standing with him, instantly invigorating Taylor and seemingly all the other soldiers.
Marveling at the spell, she shook off the few cobwebs that managed to stick to her mind and renewed her assault. Vaporblades flew by the dozen, ice shards peppered the rushing centaurs, and blasts of water or ice hit weapons and limbs to push them away from their intended target. At least when she noticed them. Sadly, a few soldiers were cut down while she was distracted by making sure that the cloud of arrows heading for them didn't arrive.
Taylor was wondering about when the centaurs would give up the obviously failing attack when, after they defeated the last group, a new and very different centaur appeared charging in the middle of extremely burly, extremely angry, and extremely well-armed centaurs.
Some kind of intricate blanket covered the centaur's lower body, and his entire upper torso was bare, while his horns, long and sharp, were covered with runes that pulsed with red light. In his hand, he held a staff that pulsed in rhythm with his horns, and with the same unsettling color.
Well, it seemed Taylor wouldn't need to look for the source of the red glow on the other centaurs.
The moment Thackeray spotted the charging centaur, he exclaimed, raising his sword and pointing at the centaur.
"The sage! Deal with him and victory is ours!"
Taking the opportunity to take a breather, she changed her attunement to earth and cast another cleaning spell, as the sweat and blood were starting to bother her again. Sadly, it didn't help her bedraggled clothing, but she was prepared to pay that small price.
There was no more talk, despite Taylor expecting the sage to start monologuing. Instead, he began conjuring up rocks and flinging them at their bedraggled group, while his probable guards, showcasing an incredible lack of learning capability, charged at them.
As if expecting it to work after it failed the last hundred times.
Taylor just sighed and began countering the obviously crazy centaur mage. She either sniped out the incoming projectile with precise strikes of her refined rock daggers or simply conjured short-lived rock shields over the men. She could have used more precise magic, but after fighting continuously for who knows how long she felt the mental fatigue creeping in, and instead went with less precise spells to make sure she could do it even if she was dead tired and wanted to crawl in a bed and sleep for weeks like nothing else.
All the while, the Captain and the remaining Seraph were fighting the elite centaurs, with Thackeray's weird white magic still bolstering the ragtag group. Despite the increasingly harsher bombardment originating from the sage, thanks to Taylor's protections, the men in front of her made quick work of the enemy combatants.
Seeing this, the sage stopped the bombardment and raised one hand, and pointed at Captain Thackeray. His voice was hoarse and contained a deep-seated rage that Taylor had never heard before.
"Foolish human, you think you've won? You won nothing! The ancestors will make sure you will pay!"
And with that, he summoned a rather impressive wave of earth spikes, more than likely to prevent pursuit, and turned around and hightailed from the bridge.
The soldiers around her and Thackeray, seeing this, and noting that there were no more centaurs around them, collapsed where they stood, some of them already asleep by the time their bodies touched the ground, while some others were openly weeping in relief.
Taylor, however, wasn't so quick to accept their victory. Witch quick steps, she stepped over the resting soldiers and stopped next to the captain, while also straining her eyes to see where the centaur was heading.
"That's a trap, right Captain?"
The armored man next to her nodded without looking at her and started talking.
"Of course. But I'm afraid it's our duty to spring it and see what they're planning, Taylor."
"I was afraid you'd say that…" Murmured Taylor as she watched Thackeray start running after the sage. With a great sigh and a shake of her head, she followed him maneuvering around the spikes on the bridge, while also attuning to air. She would need the enormous power of lighting if she wanted to finish this really fast. A few soldiers, who still had some energy left, followed her, groaning and cursing the centaurs and the captain.
After a brief jog, she found Thackeray looking out at the devastated plateau, cursing like a sailor. On seeing it, Taylor could understand his feelings. The entire area was filled with ruined and smoldering buildings, operational and wrecked siege equipment, and even more corpses.
Sadly, they couldn't even slow down to afford the dead the respect they deserved as they had to deal with whatever plan the centaur sage devised.
Finding the centaur wasn't hard.
He stood upon a small hill inside a bubble of magical shield surrounded by nine centaurs dressed in the same style, albeit none of them were as ornate as the sage. And to Taylor's horror, all of them had their hands raised in the air and were chanting. Without thinking, she called up enough magic for a potent lightning strike, raised her battered staff and fired it at the bubble, intending to pop it. Unfortunately, she had to watch, horrified, as the shield simply absorbed the attack, showing no sign of damage. A few soldiers who still had their bows joined her, but their arrows were even less effective than her lightning.
Captain Thackeray said nothing, but instead of watching the ominously chanting centaur mages, he was looking at the ground as if trying to spot something. Before Taylor could ask what he was looking for, another soldier spoke up, worry clear in their voice.
"What are they doing, Captain?"
"Summoning." Came the terse reply. "Some kind of elemental. Don't worry, we just have to hit it enough that the mana they are using to maintain it runs out."
Taylor had to raise an eyebrow at that. "So just hit it until it goes away? Really?"
"Why? Do you know how to forcibly dismiss an enemy elemental?" asked Thackeray still staring intently at the ground.
Taylor shook her head in embarrassment. "No."
"Then that's the only option we have."
"What about the centaurs?"
"They have to stay there to maintain the elemental."
"Really? I can summon an elemental and do other stuff."
"Indeed, but they are probably summoning a greater elemental. Those are a little different."
The moment the captain finished, the ominous chanting reached its crescendo and the ground under them began shaking and at the area where Thackeray was looking, cracks and fissures began appearing. Then, a familiar globe of pulsating golden yellow light emerged from the epicenter of the fissures that looked the same as when Taylor summoned Flamy for some practice or when Petra wanted to play with him. The only minor difference was the size. Instead of a golf ball sized ball of light, it was probably the size of a grown human male.
The moment it emerged from the ground, it instantly began sucking up the surrounding ground and even started attracting the debris around in the plateau. Taylor even had duck to evade the wheels of trashed wagon heading for the ball of elemental magic.
However, curiously, the collected debris didn't form a shell for the ball. Instead, it settled on the ground in two spots around the ball of light. Before she could voice her confusion, those spots began to grow. Faster than she could blink, two hands appeared, much bigger than several men standing on each other's shoulders, flailing around.
Agog at the size of the rock hands emerging from the ground, ignoring the cries of the remaining soldiers and their prayers to the gods, she turned to Thackeray, who was still watching the entire thing with a grim expression.
"That's it?"
"Yes. Look at them. This is probably their limit. Summoning a greater elemental is no joke." Taylor, following the advice, turned her eyes towards the sage and his minions. And, indeed, the captain was right. They were all sweating, standing rigidly, their hands still raised, with ashen faces. She doubted they would have been able to stand up to a stiff breeze.
"Huh, that makes things easier."
"If we survive this," came the reply from the dour soldier next to her. She just shook her head, exasperated, and did a quick self-check. Magic reserves at half, attuned to air and exhausted beyond belief. She was probably only standing thanks to Thackeray's weird magic.
"I will buy you a drink if we survive."
"I will hold you to that!" answered the man with a grim chuckle, then fell silent and raised his sword and shield, and the white light enveloping them intensified. "Let's go kill an elemental!"
The men around them rallied, exclaiming oaths to the gods, and rushed at the arms made of rubble, rocks, and stone. Immediately, several lesser elementals spawned around it who met the charge of the soldiers head on. Unfortunately for the elementals, the soldiers were all augmented with Thackeray's magic, so they simply smashed through them, their exhaustion forgotten, hacking away at the giant hands while also dodging their slow and heavily telegraphed attacks.
Taylor at the same time took a deep breath, reached inside her well of magic and dragged up every last dreg she could, shaped it into lightning and air, and began weaving some of the greatest and most intensive magic that she had ever done since she came to Kryta.
Her first act was to bolster the remaining troops, enveloping them in an aura of air, thus increasing their speed. Then, she simply began raining down lightning bolts as fast as she could, while occasionally shielding a soldier with her arcane shield. It was beyond exhausting, but she knew if she failed here, a lot of people would die.
For the next few minutes or hours, because she lost all sense of time, she simply concentrated on blasting away at the elemental while also shielding the soldiers from raining debris or sneaky lesser elementals. She ignored the yells from the soldiers and Thackeray, judging that spending energy on that would be a waste, and just tried to wring out more magic out of herself than it was possible. After an undetermined amount of time, she noticed she had fallen into the rhythm of her breathing exercise, continuously regenerating some magic. Making an absentminded note to research the phenomena later, she refocused her attention on the elemental.
The exhaustion may have dulled her physical senses, but her magical senses were operating at their peak efficiency. So, after some time, she noticed something weird. With her senses cast in the direction of the greater elemental, to make sure it wouldn't grow another hand or such, she noticed something. The ball's pulse, while harried and fast-paced, was from the start of the summoning consistent, yet it had changed.
It became erratic.
At first, she didn't really know what this new information meant, but one glance at the centaurs told her everything she needed to know. Most of them had blood streaming down their faces, and she could see that several centaurs were only standing because the summoning magic was keeping them erect, as they were visibly dead. Not a lot of races survive when their heads explode.
The sage, however, was different. He only had blood flowing from his nose, but his eyes were looking in her direction, with such hate that it dwarfed everything she had ever seen in Emma's eyes. When he noticed she was looking at him, he smirked, and the ball began pulsating even more erratically.
Then she realized what it meant.
When Taylor practiced summoning Flaky, she sometimes botched the spell, and if she did it when the body was partially formed, it produced a small explosion. Based on the face of the centaur, he was trying to do it for the already summoned elemental.
She cast her eyes back to the glowing ball, just in time to see a thin stream of magic to erupt from its surface as she had seen on videos about the sunspots.
"Captain! It's going to blow!"
Following her yell, the aforementioned captain looked up from bisecting a lesser elemental, frowned at her, then looked up at the elemental. Taylor, even at the distance they were, saw his eyes go round in surprise.
Thackeray didn't hesitate as he immediately addressed the soldiers fighting around him.
"Men! Full Retreat!"
Taylor was happy to see that nobody hesitated upon hearing the command. They all did an about-face and began running back to the garrison. She had to spend a little magic protecting their back, but she felt it was worth it. She saw so much death today that every life she saved would help her ease the horrors she witnessed.
She was about to turn and run when she noticed she was on her knees, desperately clinging to her staff, totally exhausted. Taylor doubted she even had enough energy to stand up. Fortunately, she still had enough awareness to keep blasting the greater elemental.
At the same time, the hands that have been almost half destroyed by them began to crumble even faster, and the globe of elemental magic between them started to visibly pulse extremely erratically.
Noticing that everyone was out of her sight, she closed her eyes in acceptance and began waiting for the explosion, knowing she had no chance to even crawling away.
She was about to say goodbye to her new family and ask forgiveness from her father for not going back when to her surprise, somebody roughly picked her up and threw her up in the air. The next second she felt herself landing on something hard, while also feeling as if she was moving really fast.
Forcing her eyes open, she saw the ground and a pair of armored legs.
Upon further inspection, it turned out the legs belonged to Captain Thackeray, who was running towards the garrison, with her on his shoulder. Looking back at the elemental, she saw the last rubble making up the hands fall to the ground, and the globe began to expand.
With great effort, she threw everything she had and more into one last shield spell, protecting her and her impromptu steed.
Then an eye-searing flash of light, and then merciful darkness.
